I spent many years of my career in the hospitality business and the first rule of thumb when dealing with customers was, "if a guest had a positive experience, they'll tell 3 people and if they had a negative experience, they'll tell 10." That same idea holds true in the new media world, except the numbers have grown exponentially. Instead of it being 3 people – it’s 3,000, or instead of 10 – it’s perhaps 100,000. The numbers aren’t meant to scare you. But what should you do when something goes wrong?

Our goal, of course, hasn’t changed – work to increase the number of positive comments written about your company, product, or service and take care of those who have negative experiences. But, how do you make that happen in the social media world? What steps to you take to keep negative social media damage to a minimum?

Minimize the damage

Before we even talk about how to fix what goes wrong, let’s talk about the positives. One of the best ways to minimize social media damage is to proactively create an environment that encourages positive feedback. There are two main things you should do to keep the accolades coming.

1. Foster a positive culture. There are plenty of studies showing that if your employees are happy, they will deliver good service to customers. Not only does this minimize potential damage, but it leverages your brand in a very positive way. Keeping your employees engaged and letting them know how they fit into the corporate culture goes a long way.

Case in point: I recently returned from a conference in New Orleans where Harvard Professor John Kotter showed us an old video of a Roto Rooter employee who had pimped out his van to make his job easier. It had everything from pull down maps (obviously this dated prior to the Garmin) to a makeshift toilet. The point is, this employee created all of these conveniences for himself so he could spend more time servicing customers. How many of your employees are doing that?

2. Train employees on the proper use of social media tools. Your employees represent your organization, and if they have a solid, credible personal brand, it will carry over to the company’s image.

It’s not enough to allow employees to have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Organizations need to show employees the proper way to use them. For example, Zappos employees are not only encouraged to have Twitter accounts, but they receive training during company orientation on how to use the application. Again, if your employees use social media well, it will benefit both those employees and the organization.

Keep in mind, however, that someday the other shoe might drop. Many companies have fallen prey to negative press, so don’t put your head in the sand. It’s not about "if" something will happen; it’s about "when." In this transparent, authentic and real-time world, expect a hiccup to occur. But be prepared.

In the end, the issue is less about the mistake that was made, but the reaction that came after. So, here are some tips to follow if you find yourself in a damage control mode.

1. Monitor social media sites 24/7

Daniel Ruby, director of marketing at advertising network Chitika, recently had an issue where McAfee flagged one of their ads, thus making their entire network have issues with aggressive McAfee antivirus alerts. Ruby credits Twitter for alerting them to the issue. "We actually found out from one of our publishers who was telling a reader via Twitter as well as the comments box on his site that our ads were why his site was giving McAfee users a red flag," he said.

From there, Chitika could respond to concerned users (also via Twitter), and keep users up-to-date on the steps they were taking to fix the problem.

2. Respond quickly with a consistent message

No matter how proactive you are, customers will start to question your organization when they see problems. And, whenever there is an information void, those customers will tend to fill in the gaps with their own thoughts on what the cause may be. That's why it is important to respond to issues quickly, even if the message is just, "we're looking into it."

Communication is key here. Make sure each employee knows the same message all the way down the chain of command. And, when that message changes, don’t forget to communicate those changes. This serves two purposes; (1) it gives the public a sense that you have your arms around the issue; and (2) it gives your employees a sense of unity – working together to solve a common problem.

3. Reply to the social media world

These situations are not contained to just a certain type of organization. For example, following a meeting of Ignite Phoenix in Tempe, Arizona that was attended by over 600 people, a number of attendees had their cars towed after parking in a privately owned lot. "The social media response was immediate and spread like wildfire. It went from Twitterverse to mainstream TV in just a day," said Kris Baxter, the City's Community Development Marketing Specialist.

The City worked with some of the key organizers of the event to get the matter resolved. This was their first time reacting in real-time/social media environment, so they decided to tweet responses versus waiting for the newspaper.

Baxter explained, “Because we reacted quickly online to solve the problem, our reputation took substantially less of a hit than it might have. People who blogged and tweeted about the experience actually started writing comments such as ‘seems as though Tempe cares and is looking into it.'” Since then, the City has been working with the property owner to sign the lot more clearly and they’re redefining their towing ordinance.

4. Educate employees on proper messaging

In today’s technology age, a company's brand image belongs to the consumer, so using social media tools to learn, communicate, and evolve makes for a better, more flexible company. “People have an infinite number of ways and places to talk about your brand (or any number of other topics), and if you don't go where they are, you don't know what they're saying,” Ruby told me.

If you make a mistake, own up to it. Recently, for example, European furniture maker Habitat was caught spamming Twitter. Their response was an apology. No skirting the issue. No blaming a computer glitch. So in the end, the old cliché that honesty is the best policy still holds true.

5. Develop a Crisis Strategy

While I’ve spent the majority of this post talking about how to respond when crisis hits, it’s important to realize that sometimes the best response is no response at all. It’s easy to get sucked into the flurry of activity and turn a molehill into a mountain.

These can be tricky waters to navigate. Obviously, if you have a public relations firm, you want to tap into their expertise in creating a response strategy. But let’s say you don’t and something happens... what can you do? Jenni Brand from Bastille Marketing offered up some terrific suggestions:

1. Assemble a team of trusted employees who are willing to work round the clock (it won't be for long - just a few days at most) to help you evaluate the situation and possibly respond

2. Assess the situation online by harnessing the tools that are publicly available, such as Google Search, Blogs, Technorati, Twitter Search and Who's Talkin'. Also watch RSS feeds to the online publications of both mainstream and industry media sources.

3. Track these sources constantly to see what and how the situation is developing. Watch the "attacker's" website or blog as well. They may change their tune or consumers may react negatively and post comments about it on their site.

Then assess the situation:

- Trend the volume of response and the type of consumer reaction over time: Is it growing or waning? Is it supportive or negative? How is this changing over time?

- Identify what your target audience's reaction is. This will determine your response. Remember: your response could validate that there is an issue and may further perpetuate a negative situation.

I asked Brand how organizations should evaluate the need for response once organizations have all this info. Here’s her take on how to respond (if at all):

- If consumers are silent on the situation, continue to monitor but don't respond publicly. Assess the need to respond on an ongoing basis - hourly, twice daily, daily, etc.

- If consumers are demanding a response, be sure that the initial upswell of outrage has passed and that the issue is, in fact, continuing. The online audience is fickle - if something more interesting breaks in the news, they may abandon your issue to move on to something more "important."

- When responding, be sure to really listen and determine what consumers want - do they just want an apology/acknowledgment or do they demand change? Be sure to address these things in your response.

- DO NOT RESPOND too quickly, too thoroughly, in too much of a 'corporate' tone or via a press release posted on your website (as the sole response mechanism). These tactics are typically not well-received in the social media landscape.

People like Kris Baxter and the City of Tempe are the ones that "get it" where social media is concerned: "Our situation showed that social media is not only a means of getting out your positive, proactive messages but also a means to protect your brand and react to negative situations to resolve them quickly and positively," said Kris. Well said.

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